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Boulder sets first meeting for working group on 'sexually violent predator' housing

By Alex Burness

Staff Writer

Posted:
01/08/2018 10:06:12 AM MST

Updated:
01/08/2018 07:03:52 PM MST

Boulder has announced the 10 members of a new city working group tasked with evaluating "housing options for sexually violent predators," the recent proliferation of whom sparked major concerns among some residents in 2017.

As many as four such "predators" — the label is given to offenders convicted of certain sex crimes and then deemed by officials to have personality traits that make them a greater risk to reoffend — were housed at the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless on north Broadway over the summer, and some in the public and on the City Council felt this presented a safety issue.

The working group, which is the creation of the City Council, features as its members:

• Nadia Ali, a Boulder resident

• Katharina Booth, representing the Boulder County District Attorney's Office

• Greg Brown, the county's chief probation officer

• Nicole Collins, a board member at the shelter and a county public defender

• Melissa Gallardo, the adult parole manager at the Colorado Department of Corrections

The group is scheduled to meet for the first time at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 31 at the city's Municipal Services Center, 5050 Pearl St. That meeting and all subsequent meetings of the group are open to the public.

Given the chance late last year to restrict where in the city "sexually violent predators" can live, the council declined, citing research that indicates such restrictions can be counterproductive and do not necessarily improve public safety.

But the working group will take a fresh look at that, and other items, according to a city news release.

"The working group will make recommendations to City Council about potential housing solutions and other restrictions," the release stated.

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